Haaland & Man City: Perfect Match for Goals-Focused Life

Erling Haaland’s status as the Premier League’s Golden Boot winner for 2022-23 is now official. The Manchester City forward scored an incredible 36 goals in 35 appearances to finish as the league’s top scorer in what has been an incredible first season in English football. Haaland has broken numerous scoring records along the way to becoming City’s first Golden Boot winner since Sergio Aguero in 2014-15, including the most goals in a single Premier League season, breaking the 34-goal mark shared by Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole for almost three decades. Shearer commented on Haaland’s attitude, saying “He lives for goals, that is what his life is about. He works on scoring goals every single day. He wants to go out on a Tuesday night, Wednesday night or a Saturday or a Sunday and get goals. Goals, goals, goals, they are his life, as they were mine. It’s all you think about 24/7 and it is all you want to do. I love his attitude, you can tell that he is so hungry, and how much a goal means to him, and I admire that so much.” While Dixie Dean’s 63 goals in all competitions remains an English top flight record, Haaland may be eyeing up Shearer’s all-time Premier League record of 260 goals from 441 games. If Haaland maintains his current scoring rate then he could potentially surpass that total within six seasons. Haaland was undoubtedly a nightmare for any defender to face this season, with Ben Mee of Brentford commenting “What a season he has had, he has been unstoppable. He scored an incredible amount of goals. He is very close to the whole package. His movement is incredible. More often than not someone slides him through and he is on goal. He is deadly.” Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards added: “People were saying Haaland would not fit into the squad but his runs in behind create space. He had to adapt to Manchester City but City had to adapt to him. It has been the perfect match.”